Persistence

It’s practically 3 weeks into the month and I’m just writing my first blog post. I could think of this as a failure of meeting my goal of a weekly blog post, because technically, it is. Or I could think of it more as a standard set back in the process of doing new things. I have found lately that the kinder I am to myself in regards to these so called failures, the more likely I am to pick back up and keep trying. Ultimately, that is the only way I ever succeed, through perseverance. It can be especially easy to forget that I was once a beginner as I get older and gain more mastery over the skills I’ve amassed. Having a baby helps me remember this though, as I see her trying and failing the same skills over and over, until one day, she succeeds. What I do not see her do is stop trying, in fact she barely seems affected by the failures. For her, half the fun seems just to be trying to do it.

So, even though I have not ticked off every box for every new habit I’m working on every day, even though my dining room is still flooded with clothes waiting to be tested for sparking joy, and even though I have piles of fabric and not one finished project, I am going to keep on trying. Because within these failures I have had my small successes, which I know are what will lead me to the large successes I am aiming for. My master closet does have my husbands clothes in it, neatly folded and organized and hung on hangers whose color shows if they have been worn in the last month or not. I have pattern pieces cut and pinned, and instructions printed out. I have a bullet journal with a monthly tracker that is sporadically being filled out. And I have this third blog post – proof of my efforts not being in vain. I am making a lot of big changes and setting myself matching big goals, but I have not given up and I have made progress. I just have to let myself see how far I have come instead of just how far I still have left to go.

So for anyone taking the time to read this small offering and new measure of a small success in my personal goals, I hope you stop and think about how far you have come in your own efforts towards reaching a goal or making a change. Because when you start to focus on the journey instead of the destination, it can be easier to appreciate the process.